Cage

Call Cold

Call

To call is to match the current bet. If there has been a bet of $10 and a raise of $10 then it costs $20 to call. Calling is the cheapest (and the most passive) way to remain in a hand.

Calling Station

A weak-passive player who calls a lot, but doesn't raise or fold much. This is the kind of player you like to have in your game.

Cap

To put in the last raise permitted on a betting round. This is typically the third or fourth raise. Dealers in California are fond of saying 'Capitola' or 'Cappuccino'.

Card Room

The room or area in a casino where poker is played.

Cardroom

The rooms in which poker is played, or the organizations who run those rooms. Most casinos that offer poker have a separate room, or at least a roped-off area, designated as the cardroom. In some places where poker is legal, you will also find separat

Cards Speak

a rule that players do not have to correctly state the contents of their hand.

Case Card

The last card of a denomination or suit, when the rest have already been seen.

Case Chips

A player's last chips.

Case

The last card of a certain rank in the deck. Example: 'The flop came J-8-3; I've got pocket jacks, he's got pocket 8's, and then the case eight falls on the river and he beats my full house.'

Cash In

To leave the game and convert one's chips to cash, either with the dealer or at the cage.

Cash Out

To leave a game and cash in one's chips at the cage.

Caught Speeding

Slang for caught bluffing.

Caught

Slang for caught bluffing.

Center Pot

The first pot created during a poker hand. This is as opposed to one or more 'side' pots that are created if one or more players goes all-in. Also 'main pot.'

Chase

To stay in against an apparently stronger hand, usually in the hope of filling a straight or flush.

Check In The Dark

To check before looking at the card or cards just dealt.

Check Raise

To check and then raise when a player behind you bets. Occasionally you will hear people say this is not fair or ethical poker. Piffle. Almost all casinos permit check-raising, and it is an important poker tactic. It is particularly useful in low-limi

Check

To not bet, with the option to call or raise later in the betting round. Equivalent to betting zero dollars OR Another word for 'chip', as in poker chip.

Cheese

A very substandard starting hand.

Chip Race

As the limits increase in tournaments, lower denomination chips are taken out of circulation. Rather than rounding odd chips up or down for each player, the players are dealt a card for each odd chip. The player with the highest card is given all the

Chips

Tokens purchased by players to place bets.

Chop

To return the blinds to the players who posted them and move on to the next hand if no other players call. It also means to 'split the pot'

Cinch Hand

An unbeatable hand; nuts.

Closed Hand

A hand in which all cards are concealed from the opponents.

Closed Poker

Games in which all of the cards are dealt face down.

Coffee Housing

An attempt to mislead opponents about one's hand by means of devious speech or behavior.

Coffeehousing

This is when Players chat about a hand they are involved in, with the intent of misleading or manipulating other Players.

Cold Call

To call more than one bet in a single action. For instance, suppose the first player to act after the big blind raises. Now any player acting after him must call two bets 'cold.' This is different from calling a single bet and then calling a subsequen

Cold Deck

A fixed deck.

Cold

If a player says his cards have 'gone cold,' he's having a bad streak.

Collusion

When two or more players conspire to cheat in a poker game.

Color Up

To exchange one's chips for chips of higher value, usually to reduce the number of chips one has on the table.

Come Hand

A hand that has not yet been made, requiring one or more cards from the draw to complete it.

Come Over The Top

To raise or reraise an opponent's bet.

Come

Playing a worthless hand in the hope of improving it is called 'playing on the come.'

Commit Fully

To put in as many chips as necessary to play your hand to the river, even if they're your case chips.

Community Cards

In flop games and similar games, the cards dealt face up in the center of the table that are shared by all active players.

Complete Hand

A hand that is defined by all five cards - a straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, or straight flush.

Connector

A hold'em starting hand in which the two cards are one apart in rank. Examples: KQs, 76.

Connectors

Consecutive cards which might make a straight.

Counterfeit

To make your hand less valuable because of board cards that duplicate it. Example: you have 87 and the flop comes 9-T-J, so you have a straight. Now an 8 comes on the turn. This has counterfeited your hand and made it almost worthless.

Cowboy

Another term for a King

Crack

To beat a hand - typically a big hand. You hear this most often used to apply to pocket aces: 'Third time tonight I've had pocket aces cracked.'

Cripple

As in to cripple the deck. Meaning that you have most or all of the cards that somebody would want to have with the current board. If you have pocket kings, and the other two kings flop, you have crippled the deck.